ReviewMe Fixes Price Gaming
written by John Chow
It’s looks like ReviewMe has been paying attention to my recent price gaming post. They no longer list blogs based on pricing. Now all blogs are listed based on star ranking.
It’s good to see ReviewMe is paying attention to publishers’ concerns. I like the solution they came up with. Blogs can still set their own prices but where they rank on the ReviewMe page will based on how many stars their blogs have.
As the only five star blog in the Blogs categories, it doesn’t matter what I set my price to, I will always be at the top. However, if another five star blog came along and priced itself at $301, it would push me down to number two. So, there can still be price gaming but it’ll be no where near as bad as before because higher star blogs will tend to price themselves more realistically than a one star blog.
My blog still looks like quite a bargain. It’s no wonder I’ve been getting so many ReviewMe requests. With the new way ReviewMe is displaying the blogs now, I expect the number of requests to keep increasing. I am 100% sure that I will be increasing my review price at the end of this month.
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I was just thinking this same thing yesterday when I was browsing ReviewME. Some sites listed had two or three stars and were charging $500 for a review.
Sounds like a rip off to me.
John…you should definitely charge $301. Because you can, and it would be evil for sure.
They force you to an even number so that the income splitting is easier.
Well there goes that evil plan.
You call this evil? How about charging 301.122?
Yes, but the star ranking is for Alexa, Technorati, and RSS only. It doesn’t take into account any specific demographics of a site’s readership, etc.
So while a 5-star ranking may “seem” better than a 3-star, that’s not necessarily the case. For example, if my company sold SEO services, it’d be much more wise of me to order a $500 review from a 3-star site dealing with SEO (who’s readers are interested in SEO) than it would be to order a $300 dollar review from a 5-star site that doesn’t deal with SEO.
It’s simple marketing…knowing your target audience. Sure, the 5-star site would bring more traffic, but few would actually convert into sales, leads, future readers, etc. So would that be a bargain? Nope. It’d be a waste of $300.
That’s a very good point, but then you have to decide if $500 is overpriced for the readership the three star blog has…
I would think common sense would have told the ReviewMe people to rank by stars in the first place.
No kidding, it’s about time they fixed price gaming.
Of course, the profiles of some of the other ones could use some work too.
“there we speak about the actuality situations”
What does that mean?
This is excellent news from an advertisers point of view, too. It will make it much easier to find quality blogs to order up reviews from. Previously, it was such a pain wading through page after page of listings with five stars sites followed by two stars sites, etc.
Now I have no excuse for not ordering some reviews!
If you want, you can have reviews for free. I’m doing that on my blog, and I know other people involved in review exchange.
I’m pretty sure your review me price for this month will be one of your highest earners!! I see at least two or three a week…great work
Wow…now you’re number one
. Speaking of leverage–you have already plan to increase the price for ReviewMe =P. Hehehe, more money for John…and yes, the little guys will now have virtually no way to game the system 
. So…how’s that phrase goes again, “the rich keep beating the #&!* out of the….”
*(Me think, ReviewMe already knows about this but didn’t do anything until the big gun like John said something about it ;).
Well I just jumped from page60 to page6 on ReviewMe ! I think from an advertisers perspective though it would make more sense to have the sites listed in reverse price order. Why not put the cheapest four star site at the top? Oh, that’s right…ReviewMe gets a bigger cut if people don’t look past the first page..
Kumiko
Kumiko is making a run at JohnChow.com.
Kumiko is beautiful.
Yeah, too bad she’s a fake. Prior to her blog, her profile pic was on Japanese personals sites, and the girl was someone who could NOT speak much English at all. Additionally, she outright refuses to share any other pictures of herself. How many honest bloggers do you know who won’t share?! “Kumiko” is as fake as a 3 dollar bill. Why else do you think AdSense so quickly banned her?
It´s great, and why your blog was $500 a pair of days?
Well, kind of. They’re sorting by stars and then Price. They’re still not actually sorting by Ranking. I have a four-star site that drops to the bottom by price (I lowered my price, and there are lots of four-star sites), but it’s #2 when sorted by Ranking.
They’re actually appearing in some random order at first, but they’re sortable columns. Any idea what the initial listing parameters are?
You should be charging much more. A review on your site is worth it.
I really should look into ReviewMe. I didn’t realize there were people that actually paid that much for a review.
Seems to me that by going to a $500-750 review price would not slow the number of requests you get, especially now that your ranking makes you number one.
Hey! don’t give john any ideas before i order that review…
The price gaming fix is far from full-proof, but it is better than how it was before, I agree.
Obviously it’s a step in the right direction that will help to eliminate fixing prices to appear near the top, and basing the sites on quality not solely price.
Anyway, call me old fashioned, but I won’t be paying $300 for a review, nor $40. I want to make it the hard way.
John, Have you paid for any reviews?
If not then my point is proved. If so, then I’ll have to work harder to prove it.
I guess not everyone is lucky, or should I say “evil,” enough to get by without being reviewed. Hard work, perseverance, and optimizing all the tools available to you will definitely pay off sooner or later.
Yes I have purchased reviews from both ReviewMe and PayPerPost.
Why wouldn’t you pay for reviews? It’s like buying advertising. The difference is that reviews can bring you more than common ads, especially if they are written by somebody who is a leader in his field. If a person I trust and respect writes a favorable review, then it means that it is worth taking a look.
OK, let me put it another way. I’ll not be paying for a review YET. My site is still quite new and I need to concentrate on content at the moment. When the time is right I’ll push my site.
I agree with your point that it’s a form of advertising, and could be cheaper than paying Adwords or Yahoo to get the same amount of traffic. Possibly better quality traffic if you chose someone who is respected.
But, when the time is right.
When you have lots of traffic, you become newsworthy.
That is great actually that they took an interest in what their users needs are.
Do you think they’ll ever put in a system that allows the requestors to rate the reviews?
I think they will. It will help to increase order.
Yes, I think that’ll be coming soon somewhere down the pike. Actually, I think it’s inevitable. For a business like this to survive the longterm it has to implement systems that provide prospective ReviewMees with some sort of buyer feedback so that people know they’re getting their money’s worth.
If ReviewMe doesn’t implement it then I guarantee a competitor will come along that does. And that could mean big trouble for ReviewMe.
If and when that happens, people would have a pretty good idea of what they’re actually paying for.
That is a great Idea! John why do not suggest that? maybe they hear you again!
I think it’s a good thing that they make you pay for reviews. The reason why they cost that much, because the quality of the writer.
Its a step in the right direction for publishers and advertisers alike.
It really is though I can’t wait till they re-review me.
and when the update goes through and I get a high PR OR something I WILL DEMAND A REVIEW
Nice to see, you are being heard, but i think that is not a surprice
Pretty frickin twisted!
Keep up the great evil work! I’m now a subscriber!
-Sam from MarketMatador.com